Glow-in-the-dark Car Emergency Hammer

Recently I purchased a Luminous Emergency Hammer and Seatbelt Cutter. This looks like a toy plastic hammer, but is a serious tool for escaping from a crashed car. The hammer has a sharp steel point designed to break a car side window (similar hammers are fitted to some buses). There is a blade in a slot in the handle to cut a seatbelt.

The hammer is intended to be mounted in a car, within reach of the driver. It should be noted if the seatbelt locks in an accident, the driver's reach will be very limited. The black plastic mounting bracket the hammer comes with has holes for bolting in place, but it also has four sharpened steel prongs which can be pushed through the carpet lining the passenger compartment of the car to fix it in place.

As all the lighting in a car may fail in an accident, the mounting bracket for the hammer has a luminous dot. The hammers are usually Safety Orange to make them easy to see in low light. The hammer I selected is yellow and the whole handle is made of glow-in-the-dark plastic, making it easy to find.

The hammer looks solidly built, with three steel bolts holding the two parts of the handle together. The seatbelt cutter is recessed so that a finger will not fit in the slot to be cut. The hammer has only a small amount of steel in the head and so is less heavy that a carpenter's hammer. The mounting bracket appears to hold the hammer firmly, but obvious it should not be positioned so it could fly forward in an accident and injure a passenger.

Robot Vehicles for Military Convoys

The US Department of Defense funds the DARPA Grand Challenge where driverless vehicles, have to negotiate a course of about 96 km. However, far simpler systems could be almost as useful. The Lockheed Martin Convoy Active Safety Technology (CAST) system allows some of the driving to be done automatically, while the driver is busy on other tasks. This has now been enhanced to allow a lead vehicle in a convoy to be driven from the vehicle behind. This would be useful in reducing causalities from roadside bombs.

While the Lockheed Martin system uses advanced sensors to automate some of the driving, a simpler system might just use cameras on the lead vehicle with a dedicated human operator in the following vehicle to do the driving remotely. It might be feasible to have the one driver operate both vehicles, providing a vehicle interface and response similar to an articulated vehicle. The driver would normally look at a screen showing the scene from the vehicle in front and steer that vehicle, with the one they are actually in following behind as towed trailer would.

A further enhancement would be to have the tail vehicle in the convoy to be automated, simply following the vehicle in front, simulating a trailer. This would be of added value as a typical ambush technique is to disable the lead and tail vehicles. It would also allow three vehicles to be driven by one operator. It should be noted that unlike a real articulated vehicle, these would not need to be similar in size or configuration. In particular the control vehicle could be a small unit designed for carrying and protecting personnel, while the lead and training vehicles could be lightly protected cargo carriers.

The AutoMateTM sensor and actuator kit enables CAST to be an agile,
versatile and survivable sustainment system of multi-vehicle convoys which are
ready, reliable and secure. With the need for a low-cost multi- vehicle
autonomous convoy capability, our goal is to design, demonstrate and deploy a
system that is capable of both lateral and longitudinal control of various
tactical wheeled vehicles relative to a lead vehicle in order to improve convoy
safety, security, survivability and sustainment. Our system has been shown to
significantly reduce crew fatigue, eliminate rear-end collisions, enhance
operator situational awareness and enable a more effective response to attack. ...

A Kit-Based, Platform-Independent and Cost-Effective Convoy Automation System

• Five-Vehicle Convoys
• Integrated FMTV & M915
• POV Incursion Handling
• Dynamic Obstacle Detection
• Governed Column Intervals
• Limited Visibility Operation
• Night-Vision Driving Ready
• Split and Rejoin Handling
• 50 mph on Paved Roads
• 35 mph on Dirt Roads
• Single Button Operation
• 25% More Targets Identified and 10m Further Away
• 85% Improvement in Emergency Brake Response
• 87% Reduction in Governed Interval Distance Error ...

From: Convoy
Active Safety Technology (CAST), Lockheed Martin, 2009

Engine Diagnostics on your GPS or iPhone

The Garmin ecoRoute HD Vehicle Diagnostics Communicator is a cable which plugs between some of the Garmin nüvi GPS units and a car's On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) interface, turning the GPS screen into a car diagnostic system.

The goLINK OBD-II is a similar cable to interface for an Apple iPhone or iTouch and the OBDLink Bluetooth interfaces via Bluetooth. You can also build the blueOBD Kit and interface it to an Android phone.

If you want a dedicated device there is the Auterra DashDyno which has its own screen and can be fitted into the car dash board. Linear Logic make a cheaper dash mounted unit, but without GPS.

If all you want to do is actually work out what is wrong with your car, rather than show off with a flashy display, there are simple low cost calculator like OBD-II Code Readers.

E-learning for the Automotive Industry

On Friday I found myself in a discussion with someone from an automotive engineering research organisation. We had been talking about e-learning techniques and the comment was: "but I couldn't include this in my engineering research report, as it is not about engineering". This didn't seem correct to me, surely the issue of how to train automotive engineers and then how to train others in the industry to use what the engineers came up with would be of interest. A quick search for "blended e-learning in the automotive industry ", found 315 scholarly references and 14,000 general references. This would seem particularly relevant in new and emerging automotive industries in China and India.

Global Open and Green Digital Economy

In "Evolution of Digital Economy & Implications for Government Policy"
By Katsuhiko KAJI (Director, the Information Policy Division, Commerce & Information Policy Bureau, METI) argues for a Global Open and Green Digital Economy policy for Japan.Global: Mobile phones in Japan are an example of where high technology industry is focused on the domestic, rather than global market.

1. Open: Collaboration, including on open source is needed. An example given is the Japan Automotive Software Platform ARchitecture (JasPar).
2. Green: Energy use needs to be reduced. Katsuhiko KAJI estimates this at 3% for IT globally, which is twice the estimate for Australia at 1.52%. As well as reducing the energy consumed by IT it is argued IT can be used to reduce waste and energy use in systems such as lighting. As an example the

Dashbaord Mounted Engine Monitor

The Auterra DashDyno seems to be taking On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) for car engines to a new level. Rather than a hand held device you get out when you want to service the car, this unit is designed to be fitted to the dashboard. This way the car can be monitored all the time (and you have an impressive extra gadget for the dashboard). As well as interfacing to the car's diagnostic code interface, the unit will take position information from an external GPS device and include that in the log, along with engine parameters. Linear Logic make a cheaper dash mounted unit, but without GPS.

The unit is small enough to fit in a standard car radio DIN slot, but they do not seem to have a mounting kit for this. This is a shame as it would fit well under the Car PC.

Size 5.2" W x 2.4" H x 1.4" D
Processor 32-bit, software upgradeable
Screen High contrast monochrome, white LED backlight
Keys Backlit silicon rubber
Expansion Slot Support for MultiMediaCard, SD and SDIO cards
File Formats FAT12, FAT16, FAT32
Card Size 1GB max
Power OBD II cable or AC adapter
Sleep Mode Auto power-off
Keypad Backlit, secondary function keys
Aux Port 1 Mini-DIN, four analog inputs, 5V output
Aux Port 2 Mini-DIN, one digital input, one digital output, serial port, 5V output
Aux 5V Output Current limited 25mA max (combined both ports)
Analog Inputs Selectable ranges of 0-6V, 0-12V or 0-24V, 10-bit ADC
Analog Input Impedance 95k ohm 6V range, 62k ohm 12V range, 54k ohm 24V range
Oscilloscope Mode 200Hz bandwidth, 1mS sample rate
Digital Input 24V max, 4V high min, 1.6V low min
Digital Output Open Collector, 15V max, 75ma sink max
External GPS Baud 9600, 19200, 38400
External GPS Protocol NMEA 0183
USB Port Mini USB type B
OBD II Port Modular
OBD II Cable 6ft, low-profile OBD II connector
Alarm Lights Three high intensity LEDs
Mounting Two brass 8-32 rear mounting screw holes
Windshield Mount Suction cup with quick release
OBD II Protocols J1850 (VPW, PWM), ISO 9141, ISO 14320 (KWP), and ISO 15765 (CAN bus) protocols
Ambient Temperature Operation 14ΊF to 131ΊF (-10ΊC to 55ΊC)
Ambient Temperature Storage - Short Term -4ΊF to 140ΊF (-20ΊC to 60ΊC)
Ambient Temperature Storage - Long Term 32ΊF to 86ΊF (0ΊC to 30ΊC)

From: DashDino Specifications,